More Than New Recruits in the Diggins: Fighting Early at Monocacy

Undone by generalship which he considered beneath the ability of an eighth corporal, Sergeant Francis Cordrey of the 126th Ohio bitterly recalled the collapse of his regiment's position at Monocacy on July 9, 1864, and described how he ended up as a wounded prisoner of war.

    "Seeing I could do nothing more with my company, I resolved to do all I could with my gun while retreating which caused me to get away slow," he noted. "The Rebels in following our men cut off my retreat through the gap of the hills. Four Rebels in a squad were making for me demanding my surrender. I had not enlisted for such a purpose and told them so through my gun. But I fired too quick, shooting one of them through his left arm instead of his heart and then I started to run when one of them shot me through my right thigh and I fell forward into a thicket of briar bushes. The tumble, though not intended, saved my life as it caused them to think I was a dead yank and they passed on."

    Cordrey's account of Monocacy originated in his unpublished memoir entitled Life and Comments of a Common Soldier written around 1893. 



On the 6th of July 1864 our regiment with its division marched 15 miles to City Point, Virginia and embarked on the transport City of Albany, arriving in Baltimore on the morning of the 7th. The First and Second Divisions of the 6th Army Corps were sent to Washington. Both these cities were in danger from Early’s army.

On the morning of the 8th, our regiment with a part of its division took cars and arrived at Monocacy Junction on the evening of that day. At this place there were a few hundred-day men to protect the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and had six three-inch guns which added to our force gave us about 5,000 men to resist Early’s 20,000 men and 50 guns.

On the morning of the 9th and while rations were being issued, Early it seems sniffed our sowbelly from afar and wolf-like made a dash for it but soon learned it would take some fight to get it. It was then for the first time we had a good chance to fight them as they had been fighting us from the Rapidan to Richmond, that is to select our position and compel them to come up to our guns. Our men were formed in line south of the railroad bridge and had a good position on the left bank of the river while the hundred-day men held the stone bridge of the pike road preventing the Rebels from getting in our rear.

It seemed useless for so small a force to make a stand against 20,000 men, but it was necessary to save Baltimore and Washington from being captured until troops could be sent up from Petersburg.

Early could have killed is with his big guns by keeping out of musket range but he knew that the Yanks were slow to run back and that if he captured one of the big cities, it must be done quick. So, he sent his men forward to do up things in a hurry, telling them there was nothing but hundred-day men before them.

We were just back of the hill waiting for them and had been well-warmed up to anger heat by their shells exploding among us and allowed them to come up unmolested so that we could see their eyes and more effectually give them what a traitor deserves through the language of our guns. They knew that every word meant to them git, and git back they did and were heard to say “there are those damned blue patches again.” They knew our corps badges and learned that there were more than new recruits in the diggins…

After again forming their broken lines, they charged on our left. The 126th Ohio being on the extreme right was under cover of the hill, then we were sent to the left just as the graybacks were charging down through an open field. When they saw us charging on them, they did not know how many more were coming from behind the hill. Of course, we were going for them as if we had plenty of backing but the Rebs turned went to ditching; that is, there was a deep dry creek bed channel into which they crawled and went back for new orders.

During all this time, we had been expecting the balance of our division to come to our assistance but for some cause they were delayed on their journey.

The men grew weary. The sun was sinking low and they had no Joshua. They had bravely repulsed two charges but they could no longer withstand such odds against them. It has been stated by some writers that General Lew Wallace at that stage of the fight ordered a retreat, but if he did, it came too late to save the men. The truth of it was an order by Early delivered to us by an overwhelming force of his men in our front and on both flanks doubling us up on a pile made it necessary to be killed, captured, or to retreat. It was every man getting away if he could on his own plan.

It is wonderful when great generalship is laid out in the pages of history. Writers of such history have not been guided by observation but by official reports which usually have a string fastened to them as if the general had done all the business. Then, too they inflate the general about all his pants will bear, placing him the center of the fight and making him appear as the sole regulator of all being done.

But in reality, how different.

The fact is their place is not in the center, it is in the back where they can best see what is going on but not so far back as to make good field glasses of no use to them. But how often it has been the case that they had they not been so far back they might have merited more of the honor bestowed on them and benefited the army with some of the great generalship recorded to their credit.

The writer does not know where our general was at the time of the battle; he may have been within cannon range, not those little ones the hundred-days men had but those big fellows Early had, or he may have been in Baltimore. But if he was where he could view the situation and had the intelligence (which no doubt he had), it seems he would have ordered a retreat just after the enemy had been repulsed the second time and thereby saved much of the loss. Our side left 98 men dead on the field, 579 wounded, and 700 taken prisoners. A full view of the advancing foe could be had from the heights just in our rear, which leaves no excuse for the general in this sad affair. Let he who boasts of fine generalship, but we must say after the battle had commenced, we never saw any of it much greater than would be expected from an eighth corporal.

One of Sergeant Cordrey's comrades in Co. E was Private Milton Blickensderfer would be awarded the Medal of Honor for capturing a Confederate battle flag on April 3, 1865 during the capture of Petersburg, Virginia. 

Seeing I could do nothing more with my company, I resolved to do all I could with my gun while retreating which caused me to get away slow. The Rebels in following our men cut off my retreat through the gap of the hills. Four Rebels in a squad were making for me demanding my surrender. I had not enlisted for such a purpose and told them so through my gun. But I fired too quick, shooting one of them through his left arm instead of his heart and then I started to run when one of them shot me through my right thigh and I fell forward into a thicket of briar bushes. The tumble, though not intended, saved my life as it caused them to think I was a dead yank and they passed on. I must have been reloading at least; when I came to, I found the gun in one hand and the ramrod in the other which served the purpose of parting the briar bushes so I could crawl through.

I had worked well up the steep hillside where I must have fainted from exertion and loss of blood. When I regained a knowledge of myself or situation, I felt as if I had been asleep. I determined to use what little strength I had to save myself from being captured if I could. I had no severe pain but felt as if I had an attack of the nightmares holding me down. I wanted to get away but my limbs refused to carry me. I could see the blood not only dripping but pouring from my leg and knew that I had not much of that left to waste. I remembered that I had a compress in my knapsack and succeeded in getting in well drawn around my leg when I saw John Snyder of my company and called to him. He assisted me back to a house while exposed to a Rebel crossfire- they sent a shower of balls which tickled on the rails like a Dutch watch, but they did not tick our bodies.

Sergeant Francis Cordrey
Co. E, 126th O.V.I.

We had just entered the house when the Rebels came in, taking my assistant a prisoner and robbing me of such things as were of use to them. They informed me that an ambulance would soon be on hand to assist me on my way to the city we so much desired to take. I was anxious to go to Richmond, but I wanted my escort to be true American citizens well-armed and made up my mind that if they got me into an ambulance they would have to do so before dark.

There was a deep ravine below the house well covered with underbrush in which I intended to hide as soon as night set in. When the favorable time came, I made an effort to get on my feet but could not as the nightmare came and I lay and listened for the ambulance, but I afterwards learned their ambulances were loaded down with their own wounded.

Three other Union soldiers who were wounded took refuge in the same house with me. One of them seemed to have the nightmare, too, and mistook the sensation for the coming of the silent death creeper. All night long, which to us poor fellows was a long one, he prayed at the top of his voice for the good Lord not to cut him off in his sin and not cast him into the burning lake of brimstone, but to cleanse his heart and take him to glory. Eventually even the nightmare became disgusted with him and left him.

In the morning, after drinking stimulating tea, he limbered up and took an invoice of his effects, omitting his defects, and found that his feeling exaggerated the amount of his body shot away and that he had about nine chances to live against one to die. He then used more profane language than I ever heard fall from the lips of a saloon keeper in the same length of time. So, it is too often the case that a man when he finds his candle is about to go out, will throw his sufferings in God’s face then when he find it will burn a while yet, he will give its use to the devil.

Source:

Sergeant Francis Cordrey, Co. E, 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Life and Comments of a Common Soldier, containing a sketch of his early days, of his life in the army, and an expression of his belief as to what is right and what is wrong in men, in governments, and in churches. Unpublished manuscript, 1893, pgs. 77-79

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